When National Signing Day arrived this past February, South Carolina had 24 committed players, which included four junior college transfers. One of the remaining 20 has been grayshirted and will enroll in January, leaving, including Clark Gaston who enrolled in December, 19 true freshmen. Of that number, 12 have seen action, a few more than Coach Steve Spurrier expected.

"We thought we'd play seven or eight. The thing is, we played a lot of seniors last year and we didn't have many coming back this year, so a lot of these guys had to play because of the numbers. You hope to get to the point where you can redshirt most of them, but we're not there yet."

Of the four transfers, OL Clarence Bailey failed to qualify. Georgia Military teammates Joel Reaves and Jasper Brinkley enrolled in December and were joined by another GMA product, Brinkley's twin brother Casper this past August. OL Ryan Broadhead will enroll in January.

What follows are Coach Spurrier's comments on the progress of the 2006 signing class.